Iiiiiii'm baaaaaaaaaack! dodges maggoty tomatoes, moldy parsnips, and decomposing cabbages ...icky... Lyrrik, the disclaimer please!

Lyrrik: ahem HEAR YE, HEAR YE! We are gathered here today to hear the following bit of shocking news: SandryLark does not even claim to own anything legally connected to The Matrix Trilogy, let alone the movies themselves- not so much as a disembodied squiddy tentacle. However, Project Athena is HERS- no touchy! Same goes for OC's and the spoon-bug, which is no longer in the story, but she's making me say it anyway, stupid btch that she is-

THWAP Got a bit carried away, have we?

Lyrrik: has collided with wall back-first upside-down in true Matrix form, making a large dent Oomf!... Um, yeah... you could say that... puts on sunglasses but my mind is free- I have escaped without injury yet again! Hah!

Milligan: Stuff with single quotes and lots of ellipses (example: '...cheez wiz...') are Silvertree's thoughts...

Anyways, finding myself (gasp!) without homework and in need of something to take my mind off the 75 percent I just got on my Algebra final, I'm updating. And so without further ado, I bring you...

Milligan: drumroll

Lyrrik: Dun dun dunn!

THE NEXT CHAPTER!

Project Athena: Chapter 17- Not Allowed

Later, in Voldie's lair on the Skuld, Silver remarked casually, "Cassiopeia has a run scheduled for the day after tomorrow. I don't know whether to be excited or scared."

'...left brain: scared!...right brain: excited!...'

"Oh, you don't have to worry yet- you're not going," Voldie assured her.

'...WHAT?...joking, of course...'

Silver remained carefully calm. "Surely you jest."

"Not in the slightest," Vix replied. "Definitely not for a month or so, probably longer."

'...does not compute...'

Seeing Silver turn an outraged shade of pink, she quickly added, "It's regulations. Again. Just plain evil."

'...you're telling me!...okay, that was excited...'

"Nobody ever goes back in before they've had some time to 'get their mind 'round the concept'," Voldie assured her. "That's officer-speak for 'until we've secretly psychoanalyzed them and decided they won't suddenly go berserk and start randomly shooting people or something'."

'...hmpf!...it's still not fair!!...whoever said life is fair?...that's one person I will randomly shoot if I ever find them!...'

"If it makes you feel any better, Mop's been out for nine months next week, and he's been in exactly once," N/A said comfortingly. "Why only once?"

"Nobody really knows- secret. But rumor has it that he got quite a bit stranger after the first time."

'...with Mop, how could you tell?...actually, he's not that bad, just...erm...different!...yeah, that's the word for it...'

"Huh," Silver replied disconsolately, dropping her head into her hands. She couldn't believe it- all that fuss, the mystery person in her computer (who had turned out to be Wynn), the warehouse, the pods, the goddamn sewers, all that training, and now she had to sit on her ass and rewire faulty equipment. Making some little excuse, she stalked off in search of someplace to be alone.

'...you're sulking, you know...it won't help anything...oh, fuck off and shut up!...'

At the end of the framework she spied the ends of the massive horizontal girders which supported the platforms. If she sat at the end of one, it would make an excellent solitary perch. She decided she preferred the ones on the top level,

'...away from all the people...'

Creeping around the end of the hovercraft nearest her chosen eyrie, she carefully crawled out onto the beam farthest from the tunnel wall. It was a good eighteen inches wide- it'd be difficult to fall off it once she'd sat down properly. Fighting off the niggling feeling that she was being juvenile, running off to hide like this, she perched on the very end of the beam and looked at Athena from a new angle. From her perch, the mob of people milling around the Hive looked far less intimidating. Turning her gaze outward, she could see the thick tangles of wires, the cairns which marked the sectors glowing faintly in the gloom- they were splashed with phosphorescent paint for visibility. The tunnel walls soared.

"So, how d'you like the view from the top, kid?"

'...gyaaaaagh!...give me a heart attack, why don't ya?...'

Silver practically jumped out of her skin. She very nearly fell off her beam and plummeted to the rocks below, but she managed to catch herself and turn 'round. She found herself looking at someone's boots.

###

And so, the plot thickens... WHO is the mysterious owner of the boots? WHEN will poor Silver get to do something more interesting that maintenance? And WHEN will S'Lark get her ass in gear and give the story some plot? All this and more coming up soon, I swear! I really do mean soon- I only have one and a half days of school left, and one of them is an all-day field trip to an amusement park! gloats Then I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeee! dances off singing I went down to Satan's kiiiitcheeeeen, for to get me food one morning! And there I got souls piping hooooooooot, all on the spit a-turning! Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys...

Lyrrik: Just give her a little while, she'll be okay eventually... and, gods willing, she'll stop singing medieval music before all our ears start to bleed!